G-SEXTANT aims to develop a portfolio of Earth Observation (EO) products and services to support the geo-spatial information needs of EU External Action users and stakeholders, such as the European External Action Service.

Specific research input:

In a close collaboration with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) a risk map for poppy cultivation for Afghanistan was developed which integrates a variety of environmental and socio-economic data from multiple data sources, such as spatial explicit survey data of UNODC.

The applied risk concept includes an environmental suitability model and a socioeconomic vulnerability model for opium cultivation. The former includes four variables: land use (land cover), water availability, climatic conditions and quality of soil. The socioeconomic vulnerability model considers nine indicators: governance (recognition of governor authority), stability (conflict incidents), location (peripheral versus central regions), accessibility (travel time to nearest city of more than 50,000 inhabitants), education (access to schools), awareness (of agricultural assistance and initiatives designed to convince farmers not to cultivate opium poppy), alternative (off-farm) employment opportunities, credit availability and poverty.
The method applied the geon concept, aiming to model homogenous regions of opium poppy risk, environmental suitabaility and socio-economic vulnerability.
The results have been published in the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2014 – Socio-economic analysis and are also showcased in the World Drug Report 2015 (page 117).